Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

By Ravi Sinha

If you’re a role-player looking for in-depth strategizing to go with your bulbous plot development, with side-quests that take hours to complete apiece, you’ll find Borderlands a diversion. Which doesn’t diminish its standing one bit – it’s a most entertaining diversion that just about anyone can get into. Shooter fans (as long as they’re not looking for Call of Duty-like realism), multiplayer fans, gimpers – Gearbox Software’s latest oddity cares to almost any one who’s been the least bit taken in by Diablo.

A deep story and a progressive cast of protagonists are the trade-off, however. You’re filled in on the diamond-in-the-rough that is the Vault upon the badlands of Pandora and choose from one of four main character classes (Soldier, Sniper, Hunter and Berserker). The Guardian Angel, an enigmatic beauty who looks high on blue filters, then guides you forth on your quest. The ultimate payoff is obvious at all times, but to get there you’ll be fulfilling a smattering of missions and side-quests.

The back-story behind each, at the very least, offers some freshness but you’re still killing ‘X’ number of enemies or collecting ‘Y’ number of items. The side-characters and their quirky, Wild West-meets-Redneck mannerisms paint the atmosphere a humorous black – “Who needs a real doctor when you got my machines and their scary needles?” says Dr. Zed. Let’s not forget scientist Patricia Tanning and her tumultuous relationship with the tape recorder which documents her findings.

A “procedural content generator” juggles dozens of variables to randomly generate weapons, grenades, class mods and enemies, thus ensuring you’ll rarely fight the same foes or gain the same loot again and again. This generator extends not through a single playthrough but many. You’ll have the same stats and weapons but your enemies will be stronger, and missions will worth more experience. Adding more players also makes enemies tougher (watch Skags fly. Fly, Skags, fly), so there’s plenty of incentive, even after friends have finished the game in solidarity, to play again.

The numerous challenges to be completed when the missions are finished is also a nice diversion. It’s also a great reward mechanism for when you go out of your way to commit additional man-/Skag-slaughter. An odd glitch exists in co-op; if you start the game with two characters but one decides later that he wants a different character, then go ahead, by all means. However, that new character can’t complete story quests. This means being excluded from a lot of upgrades within the storyline, and even impossibility in buying a shield unless another character drops you one. It’s a small gripe, but make sure you wipe out any second thoughts before starting a co-op game.

Each character is made unique with their proficiency in specific weapons, but their skill trees are heavily dependent on their Action Skills. For example, Roland, the Soldier, gets a Scorpio Turret that provides covering besides a small shield of its own to take cover behind. Subsequent upgrades allow this turret to fire more rounds with each burst, revive and regenerate ammo for team mates next to it, and fire rockets. Otherwise, everyone has their standard “Increase Health”, “Regenerate Shields Faster” skills that can be upgraded to make them tougher. Gearbox kept the focus on the loot and questing, so in a way, not having to micro-manage your character too much is a plus. As it is, tactics diversify as players get added to combat the tougher enemies, so it’s a fine balance to follow.

The music doesn’t present much variety, catering to a Mad Max tone at almost all times. The graphics, on the other hand, are beautifully rendered. The decision to go fully cel-shaded fits the game’s cartoonish dark humour perfectly. The cartoony never over-shadows the freakish or overwhelming, with the exception of the end-boss whose looks and abilities cater to any number of clichés. For a game not too heavy on plot, the ending felt very underwhelming, taken together with the tense end-game that played up to that point. I mean, you’re fighting across landscapes, into subterranean alien depths and finally confront the centre of all mystery – only to discover that the devs went with the “Gotcha!” route on the Vault’s true purpose.

Life on Pandora doesn’t deviate much from life in Sanctuary – and Borderlands sadly makes very little effort to do the same. Unlike Torchlight’s many small yet significant changes, you’ll still lug loot from vending machine to vending machine, selling off what you don’t need. Though achievements and weapons equipped carry over into the next playthrough, this only applies if you choose the same character. This decreases the incentive of replaying the game with a different class, a problem Torchlight solved with its shared stash system. Though the class mods grant you interesting proficiencies and bonuses, you’ll be carrying the same Action Skill throughout the entire game – and you only have one. It gets stronger, but that’s it. The AI faces some severe hiccups too: Enemies are oblivious to their friends dying at times, and entering within a specific range has entire crowds, peppered across different positions (some not able to see you) alert to your presence. There’s quite a few collision detection issues, which doesn’t happen a lot (more in car then on foot, in fact) but is still annoying, especially when enemies are shooting you from closed doors.

Borderlands makes no bones about what it wants to be, and how it wants to play. This simplicity is the basis for much its charm and is certainly entertaining for either an hour’s play or three. It can truly be called this generation’s Diablo, and for all the revolutionary changes it could have incorporated but didn’t, it gets by just fine.

Rating: 8/10